


can't give you up

by MissRaichyl



Category: The Fosters (TV 2013)
Genre: Adopted, F/M, First Loves, Fluff, Forbidden, Guitar, Humor, Music, Piano, Romance, secret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-23 22:08:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7481775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissRaichyl/pseuds/MissRaichyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I had to stop it. It had to stop now and progress no further- "Hey you." -than this room. His voice fills the air as he walks into the band room, the jump in his step, the smile on his lips that you can literally feel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. piano piece complete

I sit in the room with all the instruments- the first room where I actually felt safe in this school. The wooden, acoustic guitar sits on my lap and I pluck at the cords randomly, just thinking, not really playing the notes. A zoned-out state where my thoughts consume me and I fall in willingly- as in the huge mistake I would regret later if anyone found out that I was involved with my foster brother. How Jude would never forgive me if I didn't stop this before it was too late. I had to stop it. It had to stop now and progress no further- "Hey you." -than this room.

His voice fills the air as he walks into the band room, the jump in his step, the smile on his lips that you can literally feel. I turn my head slightly to the right and he leans down; hi hand brushing my hair back away from my cheek and pressing his warm lips to mine in a chaste kiss. His hand trails my shoulder leaving a rolling, burning feeling like lava under my skin, bursting to escape from me- a sweet torture. I see him in front of me, finally, as he takes the chair by the piano. His hair needs cut again, it is hanging in front of his eyes; I laugh as her brushes it backward with his hand and then he is looking at me with pure adoration which makes me shift in my seat.

I sit my guitar beside my own chair that I claimed at the beginning of lunch hour and lean back with a signature smirk plastered to my lips. Folding my arms against my chest, I cross my legs one over the other; he turns himself to the piano, placing his finger on the keys. "Hey yourself." I tease. He glances over his shoulder at me with his hazel eyes lit up like fireworks bursting in the sky. Helpless to stop it, my smirk turns into a smile. I stand and walk over towards the window, where a stool in front of the piano sits. I look out over the lawn and the crowded lunch tables where people rush to talk and eat and gossip. I look over at Brandon, who is strangely more content to sit at or with an instrument and lose himself- no matter how charming he really is, no matter what he says.

He doesn't look up as I take a seat on the stool. "Do you remember that piece I showed you?" He asks me as his fingers glide and switch from an A flat to a C minor or whatever. I can never keep them straight like I can with a guitar. I do, however, reach for my lunch bag, which I laid on the window sill when I got here.

"The one about your family?" I ask as I bite into the apple. Green and sour enough to make a face last in a bitter expression. Brandon nods as he starts to really play. "Yeah- what about it?" I take another bite, acclimating myself to its sourness.

He looks up, still playing.  _Showoff_. "I believe I told you that there was something missing." He plays Stef and Lena's part. "I think," he hits a difficult note in his piece, "that I finally figured it out."

I raise my eyebrows in amusement. "A year later?"

He rolls his eyes at me as he goes into a new part. "Less than a year, Cal." His fingers move so fast; it's fascinating. "This is me coming home..." He plays on. "This is you coming in." I look up to his face- he says it like it was to be expected, as if we were talking weather and not his song. He doesn't look at me, he is watching his hands. The sound becomes choppy; rough. "That is us getting Jude." Then it levels out and becomes sweet, his fingers race across the board though it doesn't sound like it. "This is all of us, getting along and finding our way." The melody comes to an end and he holds the last measure for a final second and lifts off.

I look up from the piano and take him in as he gets up and comes to me. He puts my half-eaten apple on top of my lunch bag and takes my hands, holding them down to our sides. I look at him wide-eyed, forgetting about the windows on the door or that Lena could pass by them at any second. All I know are his golden green irises, liquid emerald and scathing into mine. Melting me.

"Please don't be cliché." is all I manage to quip and he laughs a quit laugh, soft. Brandon locks his eyes on mine and drops my hands. He places his, fingertips still warm from racing around the piano, on my neck and lays his forehead against mine. He hovers there and I remain motionless and breathless. His kiss is quick. He pulls an inch away and I'm sure my breath smells like coffee and apples. "You were the missing piece." Before I can push him away or give him a look, he pulls me to him- his lips against mine; locking his hand in my wavy hair. I put my hands around his hips, letting my fingers twist around each other and I hold him, pulling him in toward me. He breaks the heavy kiss and turns it into a hug, circling my neck and I reach my arms up- breaking my hands and hold his shoulders as if I was going to do a curl-up on the bar in gym class.

"I loved it." I seriously tell him in his ear. Who am I kidding? I can't stop this; I couldn't when I first got here and I can't now. Not when I can literally feel his smile.

 


	2. hate to see you leave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We can't leave and we can't talk. At least I have my piano. Callie, I don't think, even has her guitar. She said that if she was caught again that she would be labeled high risk.

**2:56 pm:**

_I should've known they would find out. I should've have known . . . now what? Did I just make the biggest mistake and get both Jude and I kicked out? Are they just going to send me away and keep Jude? What about Brandon? He's what got me into this mess; his deep green eyes and his shirts that always smell spicy and yet like Stef's laundry soap. I feel a smile twitch onto my lips, my teeth biting my thumbnail as I wait for the verdict out on the patio, my back to the wooden boards on the chair. Nothing I can do could fix this mess. Jude is going to hate me when he finds out._

**I look through my upstairs window above my piano. I didn't know that we would get caught- we tried so hard to keep us low-key, like underground. We hadn't even been kissing or whatever. I was just standing behind her as we watch the students on the quad, my hand was on her shoulder, just comforting her. Lena walked in and startled us; we didn't know how to answer her questions. What if Callie blames me? What if now she and Jude are sent away and she hates me forever? I don't even know where she is right now. We were separated as soon as we stepped foot over the threshold and the others were sent to the beach.**

* * *

**3:43 pm:**

_They've been talking for an hour. I'm going to be sent away and I'll never see my brother or Brandon or Marianna or Jesus or Lena or Stef or Mike again. I'll never see the school I've come to love. I'll be sent to a group home full of girls and I'll never get out. I won't go to college and I'll never get the job as a photographer. I'll be stuck in a life that I knew was coming. I did this because I was love struck, I was stupid and moronic. I knew this was going to happen and now . . . now I'll be casted to the wolves without ever knowing safety again and it's my entire fault._

**I start playing the piece the Grim Reaper assigned to me. I let my hands float across the black and white keys as music sings from the instrument. I can't hear Moms or anything. They took our phones and they separated us and took base in the dining room. We can't leave and we can't talk. At least I have my piano. Callie, I don't think, even has her guitar. She said that if she was caught again that she would be labeled high risk. She would be put in a group home and now because of me, she wouldn't get to spend her teen years with her brother. My mom's say that love is love and what if this is love?**

* * *

**3:58 pm:**

_What if now Brandon hates me? What if I cost him his piano teacher or he resents me because I'm the reason we were caught? I just had to tell him that story of the 3_ _rd_ _foster home and I cried and then he put his hand on my shoulder. I guess Lena was passing the room or something because a few seconds later she was asking us questions and my head was spinning so fast that I couldn't keep up. I feel like my heart is being ripped out of my chest/ Jude and Brandon. The two closet boys in my life and I could hurt them both in on fail swoop. What if I hurt Brandon's reputation? What if he is labeled as the guy who got with his foster sibling? I'm not even adopted . . I put my head in my hands. This can't be happening._

**I rest my hands on the keys, not bothering to finish the piece. I have too much going on in my head- thoughts hounding me from every approach. Mom always told me to follow my heart. I did what she had said- I followed it and it led straight to Callie; led straight to a pain and I can't heal. I can't escape what I did and Callie can't either. We did this, we have something special and good and they want to tell us that it's wrong. That it isn't right and that the courts will say that Callie is a high risk and I won't be able to comfort her or hold her. We haven't even done anything- I've never touched her and we both have never pushed that. Why haven't they called us down, already? They can't send her away; I'll deny everything- or tell the truth.**

* * *

**4:15 pm:**

_I move from my spot to the rock circle surrounding the tree. I have no idea what is going to happen. I don't know if they're keeping us parted to stress out the truth or just so we can't make up a cover story- Stef is a cop, she's knows how to work an interrogation scheme. What is the truth? Honestly? I mean being with Brandon, it's only been 5 months and yet in his eyes I can see forever. I remember sitting at dinner and Stef was serving Jude his plate and Brandon handed my mine and Lena set Marianna's in front of her and Jude asked them: If people don't like you for who you love, then why do it? Lena look at Stef, as if they were eye-speaking, trying to find the right answer. Lena turned to Jude and placed hand on Stef's hand. She looks like a mother looking at her baby. She says to Jude: Because, honey, love is that- love. It's never wrong to feel it._

**I fall backwards on my bed, my legs hooked on the falling side of the mattress. I place my hands under my head and think about the truth: Callie had told me a sad story, so I was just trying to make a sad Callie happy. It was simple when you put it like that. But when you add in all the other stuff? It makes us sound like a foster version of Romeo and Juliet. We can't be doomed- what if this is love, all the heart pulling craziness? I never felt like this with Talya. With her, it was simple and nothing was really ever distracting until Callie. Callie swept me up and pulled me in and I bet I did the same to her. What if Talya was love and Callie and I, what if we are just doomed? I look in my head- even if that were true, I've felt more with my five months of Callie then I did with my year and a half with Talya.**

* * *

**4:30**

"Callie, please come in." I ask her as I walk back to the dining table in the kitchen. Lena comes in with Brandon. The both look haggard. Callie sits down in her usual seat and looks around wistfully. I wish I knew what was going on in her head. Brandon watches Callie like he is afraid she will disappear. I wonder how I could have missed it. Lena comes in as Brandon sits across form Callie- she won't meet his eyes. Lena and I stand at the head of the island, near the stove. I look to her as she gets their attention.

"I don't know anything really, about what I walked in on and I don't even know what happened. All I know is that you two have obviously grown very much attached and nothing we say will break what has connected. You two are 17 and 16 respectively and you know the rules for Foster siblings." She says this; explain the facts so that there is no room for interpretation. "If you two broke these rules, we need to know so we can proceed with caution."

"What kind of caution?" Brandon asks, still watching Callie. "Are you going to send Callie away?" He finally looks at me, and he looks heartbroken . . . how could I miss it? All the late nights playing music or working on assignments? They were an open book.

"Honey, has anything happened between you two that would raise concerns in Callie's case? She's already warned as a potential danger, anything more could get her sent to a group home." Lena tells the two. Brandon looks back over at Callie, who is now watching him. They look at both of us and Callie speaks.

"The truth is, I was telling Brandon a story of my mother when I was young and Jude was a little baby. I got sad and he comforted me. That was what you saw Lena." She is telling the truth; I've interrogated my fair share of criminals to know that- but she is also lying. I look at my wife who looks at me and nods.

"If we find out anything that you guys don't tell us, we will have to act." She says finally. All four of us look at each other and then the two kids depart, heading upstairs. Lena turns to me. "You know there is something going on, right?" I laugh.

"You'd be blind not, too."


End file.
